FARM MANAGEMENT 151 



more small pipes at least six inches apart than to use one long pipe. 

 An attempt to drain mud holes with culvert pipe will fail in most 

 cases. The water should be drained off by means of open ditches; 

 the soft mud thrown out and replaced with just enough good firm 

 earth to make it level (after being used for a little while) with the 

 surrounding surface. If mud holes in earth roads are filled with 

 brush or stone, it will usually result in two mud holes, one at each 

 end. 



Maintenance. Repairs should be made when needed, and not 

 once a year after crops are laid by. One hundred days labor, judi- 

 ciously distributed throughout the year, will accomplish more and 

 better work in the maintenance of an earth road than the same 

 amount of labor expended in six days, especially if the six days are 

 in August, September, or October, when the ground is hard and dry. 



The Split-Log Drag.* Because of its simplicity, its efficiency 

 and cheapness, the split-log drag or some similar device is destined 

 to come into more and more general use. With the drag properly 

 built and its use well understood, the maintenance of earth and gravel 

 roads becomes a simple and inexpensive matter. Care should be 

 taken to make the log so light that one man can lift it with ease, as 

 a light drag can be drawn by two medium-sized horses and responds 

 more readily to various methods of hitching and the shifting positions 

 of the operator than a heavier one. (From preceding paper on 

 Roads.) 



The best material for the drag is a dry cedar log, though elm, 

 walnut, box-elder or soft maple are excellent. Oak, hickory, or ash 

 are too heavy. The log should be from seven to ten feet long and 

 from eight to ten inches in diameter at the butt end. It should be 

 split carefully as near the center as possible and the heaviest and 

 best slab chosen for the front. Holes are then bored perpendicular 

 and at right angles to the split faces and in such a way that one end 

 of the back slab when fastened in position will be about 16 inches 

 nearer the center of the road than the front one. The two halves of 

 the logs are fastened together by stakes, these being mortised into 

 the holes above mentioned. A cleated board is placed between the 

 slabs for the driver to stand on. 



A strip of iron placed along the lower face of the front slab 

 will prevent the drag from wearing. The drag may be fastened 

 to the double-tree by means of a trace chain. The chain should be 

 wrapped around the left hand or rear stake and passed over the 

 front slab. Raising the chain at this end of the slab permits the 

 earth to drift past the face of the drag. The other end of the chain 

 should be passed through a hole in the opposite end of the front 

 slab and held by a pin passed through a link. 



For ordinary purposes the hitch should be so made that the 

 unloaded drag will follow the team at an angle of about 45 degrees. 

 The team should be driven with one horse on either side of the 

 right hand wheel track or rut the full length of the portion to 

 be dragged, and made to return in the same manner over the other 

 half of the roadway. Such treatment will move the earth toward 



* For illustration, tee page 87. 



